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The Capital One® Venture X® credit card offers frequent flyers an array of rewards and perks, including cash back on travel and everyday purchases, airport lounge access, and a collection of mile bonuses every year. However, it comes with a steep price tag—an annual fee of $395.
Quick Review
The Capital One® Venture X® is a good choice of rewards cards for frequent travelers with a taste for luxury. Although the fee is high at $395, it’s on the cheaper end of the spectrum of luxury travel cards.
Offering travel and everyday cashback rewards, welcome and annual bonuses worth over $1,000, and unlimited Capital One and partner airport lounge access, this card may have a place in your wallet if you’re a person on the go looking to subsidize your frequent excursions.
However, the APR can be high at 19.99%–26.99% (variable), and there’s no introductory 0% APR offer, making this a less-than-ideal choice for carrying a balance. Furthermore, the costly annual fee is only worth it if you travel enough to earn back what you pay and then some.
Capital One® Venture X® Important Details
Basic Card Details
- Annual fee: $395
- Purchase APR: 19.99%–26.99% (variable)
- Rewards rate: 2%–10%
- Welcome bonus: 75,000 bonus miles when you $4,000 in the first 3 months
Additional Information
- No foreign transaction fees
- Capital One benefits such as concierge service, travel accident insurance, and extended warranty protection
- Virtual card numbers and account alerts from Eno
- Free credit scores and credit tracking with CreditWise
- Manage your account through the Capital One mobile app
- Up to $300 annual travel credit
- Up to $100 TSA PreCheck credit
- 10,000 mile cardholder anniversary bonus
Capital One® Venture X® Feature Breakdown
Let’s explore the important features and functions of the Capital One® Venture X® to determine whether it’s the right card for you.
Fees
- Annual fee: $395
- Cash advance fee: $10 or 3% (whichever is greater)
- Balance transfer fee: 3% at any promotional transfer APR; $0 at regular transfer APR
- Late fee: Up to $40
- Foreign transaction fee: None
Interest Rates
- Purchase APR: 19.99%–26.99% (variable)
- Cash advance APR: 25.49% (variable)
- Balance transfer APR: 19.99%–26.99% (variable)
Rewards
The Capital One® Venture X® is a luxury travel rewards card, offering perks and cash back that revolve around site-hopping and frequent flying. Here’s how the Capital One® Venture X® rewards program works:
- 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel or Turo
- 5x miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel
- 2x miles on all other purchases
Rewards are unlimited and non-rotating, making this a very low-maintenance rewards card.
While the base rate of 2% cash back on everyday purchases is good compared to the usual 1.25%–1.5% rate in similar cards, the high-earning rewards categories are fairly limited. If you’re not an avid traveler, consider instead looking for rewards cards with cashback categories like dining, groceries, or gas.
Keep in mind that you need to earn enough in rewards year over year to justify the annual fee. Here’s an example of how much you would need to spend in a single category to break even on your annual fee:
- $3,950 on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- $7,900 on flights booked through Capital One Travel
- $19,750 on everyday purchases
However, given the welcome bonus and annual anniversary bonus, these limits will probably not be difficult to reach.
Welcome Bonus
As a welcome bonus, you’ll earn 75,000 miles (roughly equal to $750 in travel) if you spend $4,000 in your first 3 months of card ownership.
If you can’t easily meet this spending threshold, we highly recommend looking for another card, as the welcome bonus is an important factor in offsetting the high annual fee.
Annual Credits
There are two annual bonuses you’ll receive with the Capital One® Venture X® card:
- Anniversary bonus: Each year, receive 10,000 miles (roughly $100 in travel) within one to two billing cycles of when you pay your annual fee.
- Annual travel credit: Get $300 of travel credit applied to travel purchases you’ve made on the account every year.
Cash Advance
The Capital One® Venture X® credit card allows you to withdraw money through cash advances. However, cash advances come at a high APR of 25.49% and a cash advance fee of 3% or $10 (whichever is greater). So we don’t recommend using this card to withdraw money from an ATM, as fees and interest charges could quickly stack up.
Balance Transfers
The Capital One® Venture X® allows balance transfers if you need to consolidate credit card debt. However, this card doesn’t offer an introductory 0% APR and has a relatively high balance transfer APR of 19.99%–26.99% (variable).
If you need to transfer a balance, we instead recommend looking for a credit card with 0% APR for at least 9 months.
Travel Benefits
The Capital One® Venture X® is first and foremost a travel card that enjoys the Capital One foreign transaction fee waiver, along with other travel benefits:
- $300 annual travel credit
- Up to $100 credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry
- Capital One lounge access
- Partner lounge access
- 24/7 travel assistance services
- Travel accident insurance
- Rental car collision damage waiver
- Capital One Travel
- Price protections
You can also transfer the rewards miles you earn on this card to any number of travel rewards programs you’re a member of, including:
- Accor Live Limitless
- Aeromexico
- Air France KLM
- Air Canada
- Asia Miles
- Avianca LifeMiles
- British Airways
- Choice Hotels
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Airways
- EVA Air
- Finnair
- Qantas
- Singapore Airlines
- TAP Air Portugal
- Turkish Airlines
- Virgin Red
Capital One Lounge
With the Capital One® Venture X® credit card, you get unlimited access to Capital One airport lounges and 1,400+ partner airport lounges. Every lounge visit allows two complimentary guests. Each additional guest after that will cost $45.
Other Benefits
While most borrowers seek out the Capital One® Venture X® card for its travel benefits, Capital One credit cards also come with a host of handy day-to-day benefits:
- Free additional cardholders
- Referral bonuses up to 100,000 miles
- Extended warranty protection on eligible items
- Capital One Dining
- Capital One Entertainment
- $0 fraud liability
- Virtual card numbers through Eno
- Credit tracking through CreditWise
- Mobile app for account management
- Security alerts
- Immediate card locking
Qualifying for the Card
To get approved for a Capital One® Venture X® credit card, you need excellent credit. Capital One defines excellent credit as:
- You’ve never declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan
- You haven’t been more than 60 days late on any credit card, medical bill, or loan in the last year
- You’ve had a loan or credit card for 3 years or more with a credit limit above $5,000
Credit Reporting
Every month, Capital One reports to credit bureaus, which helps ensure your credit report is kept up to date.
Should You Get the Capital One® Venture X®?
FinanceJar verdict
While the Capital One® Venture X® comes at the cost of a high annual fee, it may be worth it for frequent travelers. The potential to earn rewards on travel purchases is high, especially when you factor in the annual bonuses of extra miles and travel credits. For luxury travelers (whether for business or pleasure), Capital One lounge access is a major plus.
However, if you’re not a diehard jetsetter, this definitely isn’t the card for you. The annual fee is too high to justify if you don’t have a sizable budget committed to travel purchases.
Who is this card for?
- Frequent flyers: No foreign transaction fees, travel perks, and 5% cash back on flights make this card a frequent flyer’s perfect accessory. If you’re already part of a partner’s membership program, you can increase your rewards and benefits by transferring points to your airline loyalty program of choice.
- Families or couples: If you’re making purchases for multiple people on a single card, the rewards and benefits on the Capital One® Venture X® may easily offset the annual fee. Booking flights and hotels for an entire family isn’t cheap, so you might as well enjoy the high rewards rates on travel if you’re a couple or family that enjoys frequent vacations. Plus, you can have up to three people enjoy free airport lounge access, then pay a relatively low fee for others to join.
Comparable Cards
See how the Capital One® Venture X® stacks up against similar cards on the market.
